As you may have noticed from my Instagram updates, this summer I took a trip to Russia (the country I was born)! On this trip I saw and experienced a lot of new things, but above all I’ve ENJOYED myself so very much! But these great times didn’t just happen by chance! After years of traveling by-myself and later with my boys – years of stress and overwhelm, I’ve learned that to truly enjoy myself I needed to plan these “good times”! Because only when you plan to include relaxing and treating yourself into your traveling schedule, only then it will happen!

So, today I decided to share my Enjoy-Yourself-When-You-Travel-Plan with you to ensure that you’ll have the best-ever traveling experience this summer and many more summer to come! 🙂

How To Enjoy Yourself When You’re Traveling

#1. Plan Your Overall Trip!

What do you generally want to achieve during your trip? Do you want to visit a few museums or do you want to spend as much time swimming swimming in the ocean as you can? I think that deciding on these things before you set out on a trip is important so that you’ll have some sort of a to-do list in your mind!

The only note here: I wouldn’t recommend making a real day-by day to-do list, just because unless you want to end up overwhelmed and tired – you don’t want to make your vacation sound like a work schedule, right? Still, knowing what you want to generally do and see, what places you want to visit, will be super-helpful in terms of planning each and every day!The Kremlin

#2. Plan To Relax!

So, now that you know what you want to achieve during your trip, the next step is to include good chunks of time specifically dedicated to fun and relaxation into each and every day’s schedule! Because, once again – you aren’t taking this trip to end up tired, right? So yes – you must plan the fun time to ensure that it’ll actually happen!

The Bolshoy – the Moscow’s Must-Visit

Tverskaya Street

#3. Do your research!

Just like with finding the best treat spots in your town, the best way to find all types of treat spots in the town you’re visiting is to do your research! Go on yelp or on tripadvisor and look for “your type” of fun-time places anywhere in the world!

I’m saying “your type” here because one person’s notion of fun may vary from someone else’s! For instance “my type” of a treat-time spot is a spot that serves both good quality hot coffee AND some sort of ice-cream or frozen yogurt!

Ugh… I know, it can be quite challenging to find a spot like this because most coffee shops don’t serve ice-cream! Most of them serve baked goodies! (Well, don’t take me wrong: I LOVE the baked goodies! But because I bake a lot at home – I usually don’t eat the baked goodies when I’m out! Hm… unless something looks too good to miss… Usually though I only go to the bakeries for some future baking inspiration!)

So, with that said I usually like to research the area where I’m headed to and see if I can find any ice-cream parlors that also serve coffee (or the coffee shops that serve ice-cream)!Oh, and another thing that I like to treat myself for when I go out is… fancy chocolate! So, if there’s a fancy chocolate store in an area where I’m headed to – I MUST visit it and check it out!

So let me mention the word research once more! Since you you will most likely be moving around a lot – it’s best to research the spots located in same neighborhoods as the other places that you’re planning to visit! This way you’ll know exactly where you’re going to head after you’ve gone to that scenic park, museum or any other attraction!

All the fancy chocolates in Moscow’s Eliseevskiy Store!

The Alenushka Chocolate Store

My Boys Enjoying Their Treats…

#4. Visit them all to see which one feels right for You!

Well, you obviously can’t visit ALL the fun places if you’re visiting is a big city! But… you can still go to the places located in the neighborhood where you’ll be staying! And if there are a few places that looked like “your” types of places when you were doing your research – my best tip is – don’t just settle for the first place you’ve gone to! Check a few other places out to see which one you’ll love the most!

Not only this way you’ll find your Perfect spot – your own “hidden gem”. You’ll also have a bit of an adventure looking for it! And trust me – an adventure like this, even if it doesn’t involve visiting any museums or other must-visit places – will become one of the most memorable and funnest things you’ll take back home from your vacation!

The Cakes at Obed-Bufet Restaurant…

The Russian Dolls… So Pretty, right?

So what do you think about this? Does having as much fun as you can on your next trip sound more doable now? 🙂 I certainly hope that it does! 🙂